Powell-Cotton, P.H.G. (1866-1940), Diana (1908-1986), Antoinette (1913-1997)*

Major P.H.G. (‘Percy’)  Powell-Cotton

P.H.G. Powell-Cotton was a hunter and explorer who went on a series of self-funded expeditions between 1889 and 1939, almost annually apart from an brief interlude around the time of the First World War. For the first ten years, he travelled mainly to north India, but thereafter almost exclusively to Africa.

Although Powell-Cotton had no formal training as either an ethnographer or film-maker, he acquired an early 16mm Bell & Howell Filmo 70 camera in the early 1920s and started shooting ethnographic footage during the course of his expeditions, which at that time were mostly to West Africa (Cameroons, Nigeria). Then, in 1932-33, he went on an expedition to Southern Sudan and shot a substantial amount of material there which was later amalgamated into an edited film, Some Tribes of the Southern Sudan.

The following year, Powell-Cotton returned to the Horn of Africa, this time to Italian Somaliland. On this expedition, he was accompanied by his daughter Diana, and with her, shot a series of short films about both Somali and Arab crafts and subsistence activities, which are described here.

In 1936,  in collaboration with his wife Hannah (1881-1964), he made a short five-minute film about pot-making on a wheel in Morocco, and finally, in 1938-39, on his last expedition, he made a ten-minute film about pot-making in what was then the colony of Tanganyika and today is Tanzania.

Meanwhile, in 1936-37, Diana Powell-Cotton went on an expedition to Angola accompanied by her younger sister Antoinette (‘Tony’). They took with them a 16mm spring-wound Ciné-Kodak camera. Like their father, neither Diana nor Tony had any formal training as ethnographers or film-makers, though Diana had studied at the Royal College of Art and Antoinette had worked as a volunteer in the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford.

Working together, the sisters shot a number of films among the Tchokwe, the Nganguela and the Owambo-Kuanyama. These mostly concern crafts and subsistence activities, though there is also a substantial film about the efendula initiation ceremony among the Kuanyama. Further details about this work are available here.

After the Second World War, Diana returned to Africa, where she made a general ethnographic film about the Kumam of the Teso region of Uganda, described here. She also made a more general film about everyday life and crafts in Uganda in collaboration with her younger brother Christopher (1918-2006), who was then a colonial administrator in the country. This is described here.

Diana and Christopher went on to make a number of further films in East Africa, but these were zoological and geographical rather than ethnographic.

Text : Nicklin 1981. See also the website of the Powell-Cotton Museum at the family home, Quex Park, at Birchington, west of Margate in the county of Kent, southeast England.

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Wright, Basil (1907-1987)*

The principal contribution that Basil Wright made to the history of early ethnographic film-making was the remarkable lyrical documentary, Song of Ceylon, released in 1934.

Wright was one of the first young film-makers to be recruited by John Grierson to work with him in the film unit of the Empire Marketing Board (EMB). It was this body that commissioned Song of Ceylon on behalf of the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board, which had originally envisaged four one-reel travelogues about the island that is now known as Sri Lanka. Grierson acted as the producer of the film. When the EMB was disbanded, the production was taken over by the General Post Office (GPO) film unit, also headed by Grierson.

While working with the GPO film unit, Wright would go on to make Night Mail (1936) with Harry Watt as well as a number of other films. As director, editor and producer, he would continue to make sponsored documentaries on a broad variety of subjects until the 1970s, but would never again make a film about a culturally exotic group.

Texts : Starr 1975/1996, Guynn 1998.

Schomburgk, Hans Hermann (1880-1967)

Hans Schomburgk in 1913.

Hans Hermann Schomburgk was a German big game hunter, writer and film-maker, who travelled widely in sub-Saharan Africa, notably in Togo, Liberia and Angola, over a long period, from before the First World War until the mid-1950s.

Most of his films appear to have concerned hunting or wildlife, or were “ethnodramas” filmed on location in Africa. However, Schomburgk also made the film mostly commonly referred to as Im Deutschen Sudanshot in northern Togo in 1913-1914 and first released in 1916. Although this film also featured a sequence about the capture of a pygmy hippopotamus (actually filmed during an earlier expedition to Liberia), most of the footage is dedicated to the daily life and activities of the Kotokoli, Tyokossi, Bassari and Konkomba indigenous groups. With a running time variously computed at being between 65 and 76 minutes, it is a candidate for the longest expedition film of ethnographic interest made in the period prior to the First World War.

Schomburgk with Meg Gehrts, the ‘leading lady’ of his ethnodramas and future wife, at the time of their expedition to northern Togo in 1913-1914.

Alongside the more ethnographic footage, Schomburgk also shot a number of short ethnodramas during the course of his 1913-1914 expedition to Togo. These starred the German actress Meg Gehrts (1891-1966), who later wrote an interesting (if somewhat irritating) memoir about the experience. Schomburgk and Gehrts later married, but it was a short-lived union, lasting only from 1922 to 1925.

Text: Gehrts 1915/1996.

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Promio, Alexandre (1868-1926)*

Alexandre Promio

Jean Alexandre Louis Promio, an enigmatic figure from a Lyon family of Italian descent (also reported to have been known as Eugène, Georges or Albert Promio) was by far the most prolific of all Lumière cameramen. Of the 750 “views” for which the cameraman is known (around half the total number of Lumière “views”), Promio is credited with 348. The great majority of these were shot between 1896 and 1898.

Promio holds a  very special place in early film history for being a particularly early exponent of the tracking shot from a moving vehicle, including from a gondola on the Grand Canal in Venice in October 1896 (nos. 295 and 296 in the Lumière catalogue), from a train leaving Jerusalem in April 1897 (nos. 399 and 400) and from a tram on the now-demolished overhead tramway running alongside Liverpool Docks in October 1897 (nos. 704-707).

However, relatively few of Promio’s “views” were strongly ethnographic, and even fewer of them were shot outside Europe. The predominant topics of his work are military or political displays, processions and events. He also shot quite a large number of fictional recreations of biblical or other historical events. When he did shoot scenes of everyday life, they rarely extended beyond street scenes and markets.

However, he did shoot a number of “views” of ethnographic interest while travelling in Algeria and Tunisia between December 1896 and January 1897 (see Lumière catalogue nos. 197-217), and in Egypt and various countries then in the Ottoman Empire (Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey itself) between March and April 1897 (nos. 359-417). After an interval of several years, he also shot a limited number of further “views”in Martinique between February 1902 and March 1903 (nos. 1388-1390), and finally in Algeria and Tunisia again in April 1903 (nos. 1355-1387).

In addition, he also shot a number of “views” of dances performed by performers from outside Europe attending European exhibitions. These include an Egyptian dancer at a exhibition in Geneva in May or June 1896 (catalogue no. 311), Javanese performers in London in July or August 1896 (nos. 30, 53, 56), a Russian dancer in Paris in September 1897 (no. 651) and finally, Sinhalese dancers in Lyon, also in September 1897 (nos. 771-773).

Text : Aubert and Seguin 1996. Further details may also be found here.

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Veyre, Gabriel (1871-1936)*

Gabriel Veyre – perhaps the most celebrated of Lumière operators. A special room is dedicated to him at the Lumière Museum in Lyon.

Apart from the entirely exceptional case of Alexandre Promio who is thought to have shot 348 “views”, Gabriel Veyre was the most prolific of the Lumière cameramen, shooting a total of 72 “views”.

In his first engagement, in 1896-1897, he travelled to the US, Mexico, Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean, and Venezuela and Colombia on the South American mainland in order to give demonstrations of the Lumière cinematographe and arrange screenings. While in Mexico in 1896, he also shot 17 ‘views’ : these mostly consisted of street scenes, political or military displays and cowboys with their cattle and horses, but also included the following ‘views’ on more cultural topics:

‘Combat de coqs’ (1896), Guadalajara – Gabriel Veyre
  • 26 – Combat de coqs [Cockfight]. Guadalajara.
  • 36 – Défilé de jeunes filles au lycée [Parade of High School Girls]. Gymnastic display to the sound of drums in the Colegio de la Paz, a Basque school in  Mexico City.
  • 351 – Repas d’Indiens [Indian Meal]. Popotla, Mexico.
  • 353 – Danse mexicaine [ Mexican Dance]. The ‘jarabe tapatío’, Guadalajara.
  • 355 – Marché indien sur le canal de la Viga [Indian Market on La Viga Canal]. A barge loaded with vegetables arrives at the market.
Mohawk reservation of Kahnawake, near Lachine Rapids on the opposite bank of the St. Lawrence river from Montreal  – ‘Danse indienne’ (1898) – dir. Gabriel Veyre. Possibly the first moving image of First Nations people outside  a studio

Veyre was then sent to Japan, travelling through Canada. Here, in September 1898, he shot a ‘view’ on a Mohawk reservation. This was Danse indienne, no. 1000 in the Lumière catalogue and may be the very first set of moving images taken of North American First Nations people on location, that is, excluding the short films of Sioux dancers shot in the Edison ‘Black Maria’ studio in 1894.

Japanese singer accompanies herself on a ‘shemsin’ ‘Chanteuse japonaise’ (1898-99) – dir. Gabriel Veyre

Veyre then continued on to Japan to take over from François-Constant Girel, whose work had been found wanting. Veyre remained in Japan between October 1898 and March 1899, shooting ten ‘views’:

  • 1021 – Danse japonaise : I. Kappore  [Japanese Dance : 1 Kappore]. Four  women dancers perform a traditional dance, reflected in water, Tokyo.
  • 1022 – Danse japonaise: II. Harusame [Japanese Dance : 2 Harusame]. Two women dancers perform a traditional dance, Tokyo.
  • 1023 – Danse japonaise: III. Geishas en jinrikisha [Japanese Dance : III. Geishas in a Rickshaw]. Two Geishas take a journey in a rickshaw, Tokyo.
  • 1024 – Danse japonaise: IV. Jinku [Japanese Dance: IV. Jinku]. A man attempts to encourage three women to dance, Tokyo.
  • 1025 – Danse japonaise: V. Gocho Garama [Japanese Dance: V. Gocho Garama]. Four women dancers perform a traditional dance, Tokyo, in seemingly the same location as in ‘view’ no. 1021.
  • 1026 – Chanteuse japonaise [Japanese Woman Singer]. A woman singer accompanies herself on the shamisen, a three-stringed traditional instrument, Tokyo (see above)
  • 1027 – Une japonaise faisant sa toilette. [A Japanese Woman Getting Dressed].  A Japanese woman does her hair as she finishes dressing up in traditional costume, Tokyo.
  • 1028 – Retour des courses [Return from Market]. Road on the outskirts of Yokohama, with pedestrians and rickshaws.
  • 1029 – Récolte du riz [Rice Harvest]. Peasants stack up sheaves of rice, Tokyo.
  • 1030 – Moulin à l’homme pour l’arrosage des rizières [Manual Irrigation of Rice Fields]. Tokyo.
The palanquin preceding the coffin of the deceased – ‘Annamite Burial’ (1898) – dir. Gabriel Veyre

Finally, Veyre moved to French Indochina where he shot a further 39 ‘views’, six of these being in Cambodia, and the remainder in the three colonies (Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina) that would later be amalgamated in to the state of Vietnam.

As with Veyre’s work in other parts of the world, most of these ‘views’ are dedicated to military parades, political events and economic activities directly related to French colonial life, but they also include the following ‘views’ of a more local cultural character:

  • 1268 – Repas annamite. [Annamite Meal] Shows two men eating sitting cross-legged on the floor. Shot in Annam, the French colony in what is now the central part of Vietnam.
  • 1270 – Fumerie d’opium [Opium Den]. Shows the same two men in the same location as in no. 1268, this time smoking opium lying full length on the ground, suggesting that this is a posed image.
  • 1271 – Enterrement annamite. [Annamite Burial].  Parade of palanquins followed by the coffin of the deceased.
  • 1280-84 – Promenade du Dragon à Cholon [Dragon Parade in Cholon (the Chinese quarter of what was then Saigon, now Ho-Chi Minh City, capital of the then French colony of Cochin China)] These are five consecutive ‘views’, starting and ending with the parade of a dragon, but in between there are ‘views’ of palanquins, litters, ritual objects and two elephants involved in the parade.
  • 1288-89 Courses d’ensemble des régates [Team Races at the Regatta]. Two ‘views’ of racing in long canoes, the first with the oarsmen sitting down, the second with them standing up, Saigon. Whether this was a traditional sport, or one introduced by the French is not clear.
  • 1291 – Mandarins venant saluer le roi [Mandarins Come to Salute the King]. Lined up in rows in the courtyard of the royal palace, local mandarins in Hué prostrate themselves before the King of Annam (a puppet of the French).
  • 1292 – Danse d’Annam [Annamite Dance]. A dozen men perform a dance in elaborate costumes, though it is not clear to what degree these costumes are traditional.
  • 1293-94 – Danseuses cambodgiennes du roi Norodom [Cambodian Dancers of  King Norodom]. These two ‘views’ were shot between October and December 1899 when Veyre was in Phnom Penh. Shot from very far away, they both show the young girls of the royal dance troupe performing in what appears to be the grounds of the palace of the King of Cambodia, Norodom (another French puppet). In the first ‘view’, they are being given instruction,  while in the second they perform a dance involving a sword fight.
  • 1296 – Le village de Namo : panorama prise d’une chaise à porteurs [Namo Village: Panorama taken from a Litter]. This ‘view’ was shot in Annam and is unusual in two respects : shots of rural locations were relatively rare at the time, while a travelling shot from a litter may be unique in the history of ethnographic film!

Veyre appears to have left the Lumière company at some point in 1900-01, and to have gone to work for the Sultan of Morocco instead, though as a demonstrator and projectionist rather than as a film-maker.

For further information about Veyre, see here as well as the Lumière catalogue edited by Aubert and Seguin 1996, pp.310-19, 356-57, 362-66.

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Girel, François-Constant (1873-1952)*

François-Constant Girel

François-Constant Girel was a Lumière operator who shot a number of  ‘views’ in Germany, Switzerland and France before being sent to Japan where he shot 13 ‘views’ between January and December 1897.  These appeared in the Lumière catalogue as follows:

  • 733-734 [Japanese family taking a meal, Kyoto].
  • 739 – Procession shintoiste, Kyoto [Shinto Procession, Kyoto]
  • 740 – Danseuses japonaises, Kyoto [Japanese Women Dancers, Kyoto]
  • 741-742 Les Aïnos à Yeso [The Ainu of Yeso (today Hokkaido)]
  • 925 – Lutteurs japonais [Japanese Wrestlers]
  • 926 – Escrimeurs japonais [Japanese Swordsmen]
  • 975-78 – Acteurs japonais [Japanese Actors]
  • 979 – Danseuses: danse de l’eventail [Women Dancers: fan dance]

However, Girel’s performance in Japan appears to have been questioned and he was replaced by Gilbert Veyre. When he returned to Lyon, he was not given any further commissions by Lumière and he returned to his previous profession as a pharmacist.

For further information see here

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Neuhauss, Richard (1855-1915)

Our Colony, German New Guinea (1914) – Richard Neuhauss

Richard Gustav Neuhauss was a German medical doctor, a member of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory, and one of the most celebrated public faces of anthropology in Germany immediately before the First World War.

In 1908-1910, he carried out research in various different locations in German New Guinea. During this time, according to the reports published shortly after his return, he shot around 40 minutes of film on a variety of subjects. He also took 700 photographs, recorded 65 sound disks and published a three volume report.

Of the film material, only one 6 minute film is known to have survived, described here.

Neuhauss hoped to return to New Guinea in 1914 to participate in a joint Anglo-German airship survey of the island, but the outbreak of the First World War finally put paid to a project that was already in difficulty due to lack of support from the German colonial administration.

At his own request, following the outbreak of the First World War, Neuhauss was put in charge of the diphtheria station of the War Hospital in Berlin, but himself died of the disease in 1915, only a week after taking up his post.

Text :  Neuhauss 1909, Neuhauss 1911, Jordan 1992, pp. 174-175, Claas and Roscoe 2009

 

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de Bussy, Louis Philibert le Cosquino (1879-1943)*

This profile is based on the entry in the EYE catalogue

Louis Philibert le Cosquino de Bussy, usually referred to simply as L.P. de Bussy, worked from 1905 until 1917 as a biologist at the Deli tobacco plantation in North Sumatra, eventually becoming the manager of the research station where he developed a number of pesticides.

In 1917, he was appointed to a senior position in the museum of the Koloniaal Instituut in Amsterdam and  in February and March of that year, he shot three thousand meters of film in the Dutch East Indies, Sumatra, and Java.

In 1919, after the First World War, the films were shipped to the Netherlands, where they were first shown in 1920. A certain Mr. Giel, a freelance editor who had previously worked on the films that  J.C. Lamster made for the Koloniaal Institut, was responsible for the editing and titles.

De Bussy also lectured as an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Indology at the University of Utrecht.

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© 2018 Paul Henley